Thursday, December 07, 2006

Hat Jam

It's very frustrating that more than half of what I'm knitting right now has to be kept secret. But I can tell you I've finished two hats for the Dulaan Project, because so far as I know I only have one Mongolian reader and neither of these is for him.

The yarn for both is Patons worsted, which I bought in Indiana from the woman who thought I wanted to rob her. (Not to be confused with the lady from Indiana who wanted to know if I learned to knit in prison. Do I really look that rough?)

I've had a heck of a good time with these because they're completely improvised. All I knew when I started them was:

I wanted to work in Fair Isle so the hats would be double-thick; and

I would rip back and re-knit anything that I wouldn't put on my own head.

So I cast on, then made design decisions on the fly. No stitch dictionaries, no sketches, no measuring, no net. Yeeeeeeehaaaaaw.

This the first one, sized for a small child, was started the day after Thanksgiving and finished just after coming home.

I kept the floats as loose as possible, and yet the checkerboard section still puckered. Go figure. But the hat is still comfortable and looks good when worn.

The second, larger hat began on the trip to Los Angeles and was completed last night.

Originally the top was to be all white, but that made for dull knitting. Rip, rip, rip. I decided instead to divide the space into eight parts, alternate the colors, and run the decreases along the left edge of each section. I had no idea what would happen.

Turns out I knit a propeller beanie. Look!

I absolutely have to do this again on a hat for me. Why should Mongolians have all the fun?

*high-five* for fair isle toques! Except I need to rip mine out, as it is something not quite wearable (but it looked pretty, and I figured something neat out with those decreases as well). Also, I hear wasing and bocking really even out fair isle! (can we see the guts?)

Ooh - the child's one is great, but I love the propeller beanie motifs! Good going there. So, you gonna start writing up patterns now? I hear this is how the disease starts, with hats 'n such on the fly.

As to rough-looking - oh, meesh. Hell, no. Maybe the cool, sexy a-little-rough in shots you've posted where you're dressed down. ;) But never in the oh-god-I-hope-he-doesn't-sit-next-to-me-on-the-bus-late-at-night kind of way. Some people are apparently just... uh... too sheltered. Of course, this is coming from someone who in her younger days dressed kinda like a wanna-be biker chick after she moved from the childhood home, and owned a vintage WW2 leather flight jacket. So, y'know, I could be out of touch on that kinda thing. [g] I stayed at a hotel in Boystown on my one and only ever trip to Chicago this summer, and hardly saw anyone on the streets that'd make me nearly as nervous as plenty of the street people we have in Old Town Portland. So maybe it's a big city vs. smaller kinda thing?

The hats look great! I love your criteria for a new design. More people should subscribe to it..like Rick M..oh wait, he DOES wear even the most obnoxious items. Oops, bad example.The puckers will disappear once the hat is blocked. That's just part of the nature of colorwork. I bet D just LOVES Puckers. She'll be sad to see them go. ;-)

Damn, I am going to have to move to Mongolia now. Well, just for as long as it takes to stand in line and snatch a great hat and come back home to Indiana. I love both hats and would also, wear either of them. I have to have a pattern when I knit, because I am so new at it. Someday, just someday, maybe I'll be making gorgeous hats instead of these felted purses for Christmas that I've got going now. I strive to be more like you everyday. (Now everyone, don't get scared, there is only one Franklin!)

and no, franklin, dear, you do not look that rough, people are that ignorant. i have a friend that wears "bitch" boots with everything. and i do mean EVERYTHING. she wears them to work, and she works at the local state college. and she's not "rough" either (ever heard of lime & violet? she's lime)

I love the graphic look of those hats, Franklin. Via another knit blog, here's a link to an article by Aristophanes, about what he thinks of comedy these days: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/56008.

This is just the sort of knitting that the Dulaan Project invites--a win-win for all.

The knitter, if he or she is paying attention (and obviously, Franklin, you are!) gets to play with colors, yarns, patterns, techniques to the upteenth degree. It's a great learning exercise if you let it be one!!!

The recipient gets a thoughtful, fun, enjoyable and WARM garment.

Thanks for sharing your hats--I know you will inspire other Dulaaners!! Mary B

Great hats but you're right. The patterning bunched up. I love the designs though.

Knit to the inside circumference and stretch out your stitches along the shank of the needle. Give yourself some slack in the yarn too. Do you knit with a color in each hand? That's the best way, in my opinion. Sweetie, you haven't been reading my blog lately--I wrote about this last week. Also, never switch your colors to the other hand. If you start out with black in your left and white in your right, keep it that way throughout.

That Fair Isle checkerboard always puckers, no matter how smoothed out your floats along the way. I've made several hats and two sweaters with that type of design and they always pucker seriously. Blocking does the trick. The hats look really great, Franklin!

Love the hats. And I just finished a Fair Isle hat with Patons myself; the puckering doesn't come out with blocking, but oddly enough, smoothes out on the head. It just looks better worn than displayed. Fortunately for you, I hear it's really cold in Mongolia, so your fabulous hats will always be displayed to their best advantage. Because that's what it's really all about, isn't it?I also love the new shirt. Way to stick it to 'em.

Hmm. I think I need a propeller shawl. Although, since it's finally decided to be winter here (thank you, Mr. No-Global-Warming-Here Bush), I do need a warm winter propeller hat for me. Maybe a propeller pillow to lean my weary head against. If I were truly nuts (why, yes, I am), I would knit a propeller bedspread - think of it, swirls and swirls in little modules, twirling across my bed.

No wonder I don't sleep well any more. It's all (well, some of) your fault, Mr. Habit. Keep up the good work; I can sleep when I'm dead.

My latest charity hat had some checked stripes but they puckered too badly so are now history, replaced with some slipped stitch pattern that I made up. It does my little heart good to see that even a pro like you occasionally has trouble with puckering in the fair isle, too. Gorgeous hats.

Before you go to work on YOUR hat, go look at the Philosopher's wool website, where they have a tutorial on how to fair-isle WITHOUT floats. Once you get it, it goes pretty quickly. You'll feel like Madonna in the VOGUE video. And impress the shit out of everyone who doesn't know how to do it. The link is

Hmm. Every day I check this blog, and nothing shows up. Then suddenly 5 posts appear, all dated different days. Am I going blind? Great on-the-fly hats! Has blocking changed the puckering on the squares at all?

I am sad to hear about another LYS in Indiana thinking a male knitter was nothing but a thief. That seems to happen more than it should around here. It makes me mad and if I find out who they are, I won't ever shop there.

I am sad to hear about another LYS in Indiana thinking a male knitter was nothing but a thief. That seems to happen more than it should around here. It makes me mad and if I find out who they are, I won't ever shop there.

Knit 3 grey, 1 white, across rows, shifting color 1 st ea row for 5 rows (the direction of the shift depends on whether u did 8 plus or minus 1 st for the caston). Continue but reversing direction of the shift for the next 8 rows; then reverse shift direction again for next 5 rows.(Assume where joined, ea reverse of shift direction will look odd.)

Change to all white. To make num stitches divisible by 8, either (K2tog or M1) once only. (104/8=13) (120/8=15).

K2tog just before ea marker & change colors ea marker, k (reduces 8 st each row). Continue til only white stitches remain.Leave 6” tail, thread thru all remaining st & snug together. Weave ends.--Love this hat; havent made it yet, so this guess is just that, a guess, but hope this helps - or is at least a starting point to making u own.Susie in Phx

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